


Honor and Duty

by ThereIsNoTragedyInThat



Series: A Thousand Futures of Me and You [235]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Boys In Love, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, M/M, Stephen Strange Needs a Hug, Survivors Guilt, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, but not fluffy, quarantine fic, wanted a realistic take
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:28:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26151916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThereIsNoTragedyInThat/pseuds/ThereIsNoTragedyInThat
Summary: Guilt had motivated every decision Stephen made for the past few weeks. Tony could only imagine how difficult it was to be here, sequestered away in the Sanctum, while his friends fought valiantly against the onslaught of sick, knowing he wasn’t able to help them like he longed to do.
Relationships: Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Series: A Thousand Futures of Me and You [235]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1118655
Comments: 12
Kudos: 62





	Honor and Duty

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous requested: How about a short quarantine fic with ironstrange? Just them being holed up at the sanctum, maybe with a portal to the tower.
> 
> I wrote this then felt guilty that it wasn't fluffy so another is incoming lol.

Tony found Stephen brooding quietly in front of the large window of the Sanctum. He was already dressed, the Cloak settled comfortably around his shoulders, hands clasped behind his back. He paused where he stood at the top of the staircase looking down, Tony just stood there and took in the sight of his lover, quiet and stern, body enfolded in a shine of gold as the sun rose over the city.

He looked beautiful, every inch the Sorcerer Supreme holed up in his Sanctum, watching over the empty city below. Except, Tony knew exactly what that gaze had fixed on, not so far away from where they stood. Move a few buildings and you could have a direct line of sight to the hospital, the very one Stephen had once resided in.

The virus had affected the world in the most unexpected of ways. Tony really found it quite eery if he was honest. Half the population had been more then equipped to deal with the closures, the silence, the fear and paranoia…after all they had felt it before.

The shut down wasn’t all that different to what could be found after the snap. Maybe it was more orderly and a little less lonely because let’s face it, not seeing someone because they were quarantining was a hell of a lot different to not seeing them because they were dead. Dusted. Gone.

Of course, there was the other half who seemed to be finding their footing in this smaller, quieter world with stumbling feet. Tony understood it, even if nothing else had really turned out the way he’d hoped.

He’d _hoped_ that maybe he and Stephen would finally be able to have some time to themselves. That had been naïve, monsters of the multiverse didn’t stop battering at Kamar-Taj’s shields just because everyone on Earth had taken a collective time-out. No, there was still work to be done. Who knew sorcery would be considered something of an essential service?

Not that Tony had been much better through this whole mess. Things didn’t just stop being made, their factories were still up and running, though with increasingly stricter health and safety guidelines. The research labs still invented feverishly and hounded him daily…while he and Pepper had knocked their heads together until they were able to dedicate an entire unit on finding a viable vaccine.

In a way they were all busier than ever.

It was for the best really.

“Are you going to stare at me all morning?”

Stephen hadn’t turned toward him, hadn’t even lifted his gaze from the window but there was a hint of amusement in his voice. That was a good sign, given how exhausted he’d been the past few days, chanting with Wong over some weird greenish glow stuff he wasn’t supposed to look at.

“Probably,” he replied. “The view is kinda nice.”

“Kinda?”

Tony smiled at the way he lifted one eyebrow, finally shooting him a look. That was enough to get him moving, slowly making his way down the stairs, and watching as the Cloak popped off his shoulders with an air of dramatics. For a piece of cloth, it had one hell of an attitude.

Wrapping his arms around Stephen’s waist, Tony nudged his shoulder with his forehead, earning himself a huff, “I’m sorry, I mean to say the view is very nice.”

Stephen shook his head but didn’t step away from his embrace. Instead he leaned back into it and this close, Tony could really see the circles under his eyes, the glassy sheen that meant he’d been working too hard again.

“Christine wanted me to say thank you. The hospital is very grateful,” Stephen murmured before Tony could start in on a lecture.

That made him pause, the subject a delicate one. Tony understood why Stephen was pushing himself so hard, really, but that didn’t make it any easier. As New York faltered under the surge of cases, Tony had found Stephen glued to the TV, talking to old contacts at the hospital, and obsessively checking updates in the newspapers and WHO.

Guilt had motivated every decision Stephen made for the past few weeks. Tony could only imagine how difficult it was to be here, sequestered away in the Sanctum, while his friends fought valiantly against the onslaught of sick, knowing he wasn’t able to help them like he longed to do. It didn’t matter that Stephen was saving and defending the world in his own way, he had never lost his passion for medicine and now, when he could help the most, he was barred from it.

Watching Christine suffer in her exhaustion and occasional bout of hopelessness certainly didn’t help. Tony had done what he could, reassigned a small section of his less industrial factories to focus on making N-95 masks, to be distributed among the hospitals. It was a small thing, but it had finally made Stephen smile.

“I’m just happy to help.”

Stephen squeezed his hand, continued to stare morosely out the window, “I just wish I was there with them. I want to help, and I can’t and I fucking hate it.”

“You are helping,” Tony assured quickly. “You support them everyday Stephen. Just by talking to them and offering advice and making sure they know they are appreciated.”

He didn’t answer and Tony knew that it wasn’t so simple as saying those words, so he let it go. It wouldn’t stop the guilt Stephen was feeling and there was no point in making him listen to it over and over again.

“Its very quiet,” Stephen said, finally after a too long silence. “Peaceful.”

Tony glanced out at the abandoned street beneath them, even the traffic had slowed down significantly with just the occasional bright yellow cab streaking past. It really was, and he supposed there was an air of peace to it because as bad as things were, they were all together in this.

Maybe it wasn’t peace, now that Tony thought about, but something closer to camaraderie. That was a difficult thing to find these days, humanity joining together toward a common goal…just like in the days after the snap.

He supposed if they could survive that and come out intact then they could survive this as well.

**Author's Note:**

> Come yell into the void that is my Tumblr inbox.


End file.
